The Flash #38 - A Review

Trapped in the bowels of Iron Heights prison within a secret sanctuary The Rogues established, The Flash finds himself at the mercy of Captain Cold. Worse yet, Kid Flash is running into a deadly trap that Snart has set for the assassin Copperhead, who is fighting him for control of Central City's underworld. Thankfully, The Flash may have more friends than he suspects... yet more enemies than he knows.


Scott Kollins - who had a legendary run on The Flash alongside writer Geoff Johns - returns for an issue and it really is like old times. While Kollin's style, which is light on inks and sketchy in spots, may be an acquired taste for some, I personally find it a perfect match for the story at hand. Paired with the colors of Hi-Fi, Kollins' kinetic artwork looks fantastic.


Joshua Williamson's script brings the story to a thrilling and suitable conclusion, which raises more mysteries as well as what might be something of a plot hole. Still, I am content to let Williamson set the pace, having been faked out before by his skillful writing. On a side note, Flash fans would do well to check out this week's Batgirl And the Birds of Prey, which makes use of a plot point dropped in this issue's end.

The Final Analysis: 8 out of 10.

Larfleeze #1 - A Review

I remember a colleague on Twitter asking earlier this week if there was really a demand for a book starring Larfleeze - The One and Only Orange Lantern of Avarice.  I highly doubt it and I say that as someone who has generally been amused by Larfleeze's appearances in the pages of Geoff Johns' Green Lantern.  Sadly, this first issue gives me little optimism for this book having a long life.


Your enjoyment of this story comes down to one important question - are you a fan of the Keith Giffen & J.M. Dematteis Justice League series?  If the answer is yes then you will love this book.  Larfleeze is basically Chuck Jones' Daffy Duck (i.e. I'm a coward, but I'm a GREEDY little coward) with the power to back up his laughably overblown opinion of himself.  He is joined by a new comedic foil - an alien slave, er butler who plays the L-Ron to Larfleeze's Maxwell Lord. 

Most of the plot of this issue (what little of it there is) has Larfleeze retelling his life's story to his current slave - er, butler - as he waits for an inevitable death on the edge of the universe.  How he got to this point is unexplained but I'd wager it has something to do with Larfleeze's making war on The Green Lantern Corps in the pages of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps in this month's issues of those titles.  Way to kill the suspense, editors! 


The artwork of Scott Kolins is equally divisive.  Either you like it or you don't and I most assuredly don't.  Kolins underinks his work to a ludicrous degree given the intricacy of his line-work.  This problem is only aggravated by Kolins' regular colorist Mike Atiyeh, whose efforts at providing a "tint" to a scene generally leave everything nearly the same color.  There are several points where only Kolins' habit of highlighting important figures with a thicker black line than everything else save the characters from blending into the background entirely.

Bottom Line?  I won't be back next month and if I can't be sold on this title I doubt even the rest of the Green Lantern family of books will be able to prop it up long.